Yukinoshita had just agreed, like that?
Rui Tachibana couldn't wrap her head around it.
Even if — worst case — Yukinoshita liked Lin Ye, that still didn't mean she'd agree to something so unreasonable!
Yukinoshita wasn't her.
She herself felt that if Lin Ye had insisted firmly enough, she might not have refused — as long as his goal got accomplished, that was fine.
But for someone like Yukino Yukinoshita, the aloof school beauty, Rui genuinely couldn't understand why she'd have any reason to agree to such an unreasonable request from Lin Ye.
Still — if it were up to her, given the choice, she'd never actually want that herself.
Who wanted someone watching from the side during a moment like that? This wasn't some adult film shoot.
She was a traditional girl. Not open-minded at all. She could never just let herself go like that.
Tap, tap, tap...
Under Lin Ye's brisk pace, the sound of three sets of footsteps echoed through the night streets of Chiba.
Rui opened her mouth to speak several times, but in the end said nothing.
This was the first time she'd seen Lin Ye's expression so serious.
Yukino Yukinoshita wore the same grave look, seemingly unbothered by the fact that Lin Ye was pulling her along.
Rui's heart sank. Instinctively, she sensed something was wrong.
Was there danger?
The thought surfaced in her mind unbidden.
But so many years of peace made it hard to believe. Nothing around them seemed to pose any threat.
Less than half a minute later,
Lin Ye came to a stop. He looked up at the numbers floating above the heads of several figures who had appeared.
Half an hour. Still half an hour.
"Stay close to me. Don't wander off."
Lin Ye gave the instruction, then kept walking forward.
At that, Yukino and Rui followed quietly.
Both of them realized something was wrong, even though neither knew the details.
Yukino wanted to ask, but seeing how serious Lin Ye looked, she held back the worry pressing on her chest and decided to wait for a better moment to ask.
A possibility had crossed her mind — and it felt like a very likely one.
Danger, even the shadow of death looming — Yukino couldn't help the tension and fear that crept in. But with Lin Ye beside her,
she felt at ease.
That straight-backed, steady presence gave her nothing but a sense of safety.
Being with Lin Ye, she felt secure. She believed nothing bad would happen to her — this man would never let her come to harm.
If even he couldn't get her out of danger, then there'd be no point in her struggling on her own anyway.
So for now,
all she had to do was trust Lin Ye and follow him.
Lin Ye stopped again, looking toward several pedestrians in the distance.
Three men in suits were walking along one side of the street, chatting idly — like salarymen heading home after overtime.
At the sight of the two beauties ahead — Yukino and Rui — their eyes lit up with obvious appreciation.
Beautiful girls.
No man could resist them.
Especially girls as rare and striking as Yukino Yukinoshita and Rui Tachibana — all the more so.
One of them even thought about striking up a conversation, asking for their contact info.
But Lin Ye's presence made them hesitate.
The distance closed.
One of the suited men suddenly stopped walking.
His two companions stopped as well, glancing over, clearly hesitant.
It only took them a moment to understand what he was thinking.
He wanted to hit on them!
He wanted to do what they didn't dare do.
They felt a rush of excitement and admiration.
"Um..."
The man spoke up. "You two lovely ladies — mind if I get your contact info?"
Lin Ye stopped and looked at the man — or rather, at the number changing above his head.
The moment the man finished speaking, the countdown above his head dropped by ten minutes, one step closer to death.
The numbers above the other two hadn't changed much.
This gave Lin Ye an idea to test something. "You want their contact info too?"
Lin Ye's blunt question left the man in the middle stunned.
Why would this guy ask something so strange?
Yukino and Rui were equally confused. Shouldn't Lin Ye's usual response be to warn the three men off, not ask them questions like that?
Why was he asking instead?
Strange.
And the fact that this was what he asked made it even stranger.
But neither girl said anything. They waited quietly to see how things unfolded.
"If you don't want it, never mind."
"I want it."
He had no idea why the man was asking such a thing, but he knew one thing for certain — he couldn't afford to miss this chance.
If he let it slip by, there might not be another one.
Something flickered faintly in Lin Ye's eyes.
The countdown above the man's head immediately dropped another ten minutes.
Just for wanting contact info, and he'd moved ten minutes closer to death.
What was causing this?
Lin Ye was baffled.
He turned to the third man.
This time,
Lin Ye decided to ask him directly. "Do you want her contact info?"
He meant Rui. To make sure the third man understood clearly who he meant, Lin Ye even tugged Rui forward a little.
The blue-haired girl looked blank, but she didn't react — she just quietly went along, saying nothing.
"I want it."
The third suited man spoke.
Lin Ye noticed the man's countdown had dropped sharply too.
"And her?"
Lin Ye meant Yukino Yukinoshita.
"Of course I want hers too!"
The man's face lit with delight.
Compared to Rui, someone like Yukino — cool, elegant, with that long black hair — was clearly the more striking draw.
Given a choice between the two, they'd obviously pick Yukino.
Of course, if they could have both, they would.
Men — all greedy, weren't they.
"Denied."
Lin Ye's cold refusal, delivered right after, instantly plunged the scene into silence.
Denied?
Denied?
Was this some kind of joke? He'd just asked if they wanted their contact info, practically implying they could have it just by speaking up — and now, with one word, he'd shut it down.
What was the meaning of this.
This bastard was picking a fight, looking for trouble.
The three men's tempers flared instantly, eyes turning vicious. One of them even rolled up his sleeves, looking ready to beat Lin Ye senseless.
Rui's heart lurched.
Facing the fury of three grown men,
this was absolutely not something they could handle.
If this really turned into a fight, Lin Ye would suffer for it.
She thought of how to defuse the tension, deciding to give out her own contact info to ease the situation.
"I'll give you my number,"
Rui spoke up first.
A temporary concession, a small retreat — better to protect the three of them for now.
She didn't think there was anything wrong with that.
Yukino understood exactly why Rui was doing this, and admired her for it. Of course, Yukino also knew perfectly well that nothing bad would happen to any of them.
Forget three grown men — even thirty of them, Lin Ye could handle with ease.
Nothing would happen to them.
"Ohh..."
Rui's reaction made it instantly clear to the three men that the girl had gotten scared.
The intimidating presence of three grown men wasn't something to underestimate, after all.
Riled up now, they let their suppressed true nature surface.
"Little sister, just a contact number's enough for you?"
one of the men shot back.
"A number alone isn't enough now. You'll have to join us uncles for a meal, won't you?"
A meal? This late at night?
What did that mean — even someone as inexperienced as Rui could guess.
But that was out of the question.
The man glared, his face twisting into something menacing, and Rui's heart clenched tight.
At this rate,
it was going to turn into a fight.
Lin-kun would get hurt. He'd get hurt because of this.
She — she should...
But just then,
at that moment,
Rui felt a hand close around hers — cool, but soft.
A girl's hand.
It was Yukino Yukinoshita's hand.
Rui blinked, staring at the girl with long black hair beside her.
Yukino's gaze was fixed on the three men; only her sharp, elegant profile was turned toward Rui.
But that image burned itself into Rui's eyes, deep into her heart.
The concern coming from Yukino Yukinoshita —
it felt nothing like the concern from her sister, Hina Tachibana.
A cold hand, yet it warmed something inside her, settling her heart completely.
She made up her mind then — she would never let Yukino Yukinoshita get hurt. She wouldn't let this girl suffer any harm.
That was the thought running through Rui's mind in that moment.
"If you don't want to eat, then don't blame us for what comes next."
one of the men said, shrugging, while the other two fell in line beside him.
Lin Ye watched the numbers above the three men's heads shift, aware they were drawing closer and closer to their moment of death.
"I'd suggest you run for your lives right about now."
This death-timer wasn't fixed — it could change.
If they got away from the source of danger,
the countdown would definitely lengthen.
So,
the best choice for the three of them would be to leave here as fast as possible.
Lin Ye wanted to test how much their fleeing would actually change things.
"Run for our lives?"
"Ha! You're telling us to run?"
"Kid, aren't you thinking a little too highly of yourself? Who do you think you are? You think we need to run from you?"
The three of them shot back one after another, voicing their intense displeasure.
As far as they were concerned, Lin Ye was just bluffing — throwing out a few tough words, hoping to scare them off.
This guy wasn't even big or muscular.
What was there to be scared of?
"You're the one who should be running for his life."
"That smug attitude of yours — I've been annoyed by it for a while now."
"Let's show you what happens to a young punk who doesn't know when to back off."
With that,
the man swung a fist straight at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye sidestepped it easily.
The man's punch hit nothing but air.
"Get him—"
the man shouted, furious that his punch had missed, his anger only building.
This left him feeling humiliated, like he'd lost all face.
Fury boiling over,
the man exploded into motion, throwing punches even more savagely.
But what followed...
Thud!
A brutal blow struck his stomach, sharp pain erupting and slamming through his nerves.
The man's eyes went wide as he let out a howl.
The other two men cried out in pain right after him.
All three collapsed backward onto the ground, groaning in agony.
"Why do this to yourselves?"
Lin Ye sighed.
"I let you go for your own good. I really didn't want to fight,"
he said with a long sigh, waving his hand to show he genuinely hadn't wanted to lift a finger.
But the three of them had struck first.
And his response to that was decisive — a clean, swift counterattack.
If it weren't for needing the three of them for his little test, he might have just left them completely unable to move.
Watching the sudden shift unfold before her, Rui's face went slack with shock.
She could hardly believe it.
What had just happened?
How had all three men ended up on the ground, howling in pain?
Trying to recall, Rui could only remember Lin Ye's figure flickering a few times before all three men went down.
She almost wondered if she'd hallucinated it.
But the three men writhing on the ground and crying out proved it wasn't an illusion — it had really happened.
Lin Ye checked the countdowns above the three men's heads — the change wasn't significant.
Clearly, their injuries hadn't done much to bring them closer to their deadline.
Either that, or he'd have to kill them himself, but...
Lin Ye wasn't willing to go that far.
"Get lost."
Lin Ye barked.
The three men struggled to their feet slowly, eyes fixed on Lin Ye the whole time — their furious glares held not a trace of pretense.
If they could, they'd have loved to flay him alive right then and there, make him pay the heaviest price imaginable.
But,
having just been knocked flat without so much as a chance to fight back, they realized they'd run into someone way out of their league — this man was dangerously skilled, uncannily so.
Not someone they could possibly deal with.
So,
what now?
Obviously, run. Run immediately.
They couldn't stay here any longer.
They couldn't win a fight anyway — all three of them were already beaten down. Pushing further would only bring more trouble. Better to leave now and find a chance to settle the score later.
They'd all memorized Lin Ye's face by now.
Given the chance in the future, they'd absolutely come back for revenge — a brutal one, and then...
"Wait..."
Lin Ye's voice suddenly cut through.
The three men froze, cold sweat breaking out on their backs.
Their little scheme — had it been figured out?
This bastard wasn't going to let them leave.
"Split up."
Lin Ye's tone was firm.
The three men were baffled.
Why would they need to split up?
"Hey, man, we're... headed the same direction."
"Split up. It's for your own good."
Under that demand, the three men slowly grasped Lin Ye's intent.
If they refused, they'd probably be in for another beating.
"And if we refuse?"
Crack...
Lin Ye flexed his hand lightly, producing a crisp sound.
"If you want to die, go ahead and try."
Such a simple gesture — why did it carry so much weight?
The three men gulped, hearts in their throats.
Yukino couldn't understand what Lin Ye was doing. Not one bit.
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